Synopsis: The bustling and sweltering rugged intersection of Pasay Rotonda serves as the main setting for this story of interconnected fate and destiny. As a raging man’s bullets strays into different directions, the fate of several different characters are sealed and determined. As the temperature rises, the tension escalates and the story unravels with unforgiving immediacy and explodes in the end as each one struggles to survive and escape their inevitable end.

Trailer:

Reviews:

5.0 Oggs Cruz (Twitch)

“The film is directed with meticulousness and discipline, moving from one character to another with commendable restraint in not telling too much and not showing too much, effectively teasing the audience of the predictable but still surprising havoc that is quietly being orchestrated by the elements at play in that time-bomb of a place.” (Read full review)

5.0 Jose Javier Reyes (Yahoo)

“It is the excellence in the pacing, the ingenuity of camera work and the collective brilliance in the direction and scripting of this material that bring out all its grit and fierceness.” (Read full review)

“(H)owever trite the story is, however familiar the predicaments of its characters are, and however predictable the turn of events has become, Amok succeeds because Lawrence Fajardo, who serves as the film’s director, production designer, and editor, has managed to put together a fantastic group of people—from writer John Bedia and cinematographer Louie Quirino to the movie’s trailblazing ensemble of actors—whose slight misstep can actually ruin the unmistakable rawness of the film.” (Read full review)

4.0 Noli Manaig (Closely Watched Frames)

“Fajardo is a patient and polished operator. He has the assurance of an old hand and shows a flair for thrilling action. It helps that he has assembled an ensemble of tried and tested veteran actors to give life to disparate characters. Mark Gil’s aging erstwhile actor is pure effete perfection…” (Read full review)

4.0 Ria Limjap (Spot.ph)

“Shooting a film like this—with multiple storylines and an ensemble cast—in one of the busiest intersections of Manila is no easy feat, but it’s also an emotionally resonant and visually compelling story about paranoia, chaos, and survival.” (Read full review)

4.0 Macky Macarayan (Death of Traditional Cinema)

“What makes Amok worth watching is the event which triggered all mayhem in the movie, which is a very senseless argument. As testosterone levels go through the roof, innocent people get shot at, ego maniacs get what they deserve, and the unexpected happens.” (Read full review)

4.0 Ihcahieh

“Mark Gil steals the show every time he is onscreen, and this is not even because of the nudity and the pumping scene. The audience was just laughing every time he was on; regardless if the scene was really intended to be funny or not.” (Read full review)

3.5 Philbert Dy (Click the City)

“It’s a mind-blowing piece of filmmaking. The film showcases a level of directorial and technical polish that’s rare even in Hollywood pictures… As for the story, I’m not all that sold on it. The plot is a little thin, and the structure gives too much away too early. And though all of it is technically dazzling, I don’t think there’s much in the story that’s actually affecting.” (Read full review)

3.5 Jansen Musico (Pelikula Tumblr)

“Technically, the film was good, but for a person aware of the setting’s geography, mentally placing each of the characters in the environment was a tad bit confusing. The strong, crisp visuals, and the witty play of on-screen elements made up for any negligible faults. Though the film is about running amok, everything played out with such precision. It’s organized chaos, a good counterpoint for the film’s subject matter.” (Read full review)

3.0 Eduardo Dayao (Piling Piling Pelikula)

“Amok is well-oiled tumult, a chaos mechanism of wrong place-wrong time dynamics fed through a portmanteau that has everybody looking to Alejandro Gonzales Iñarritu as point of reference, if only for how both hew to similar tropes of threading a line through disconnected lives suddenly thrown in the glare of blood and harm. But where Iñarritu gets overwrought in preaching a grand design, not to mention a troubling hard-on for closure, Amok is more haphazard.” (Read full review)

3.0 Don Jaucian (The Almanac of Fall)

“If you’ve watched the first three films of Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu, the conceit of Amok won’t be so surprising. But Amok tells its story in a stunning technique that the audience is dragged along helplessly to witness the series of unfortunate events in the bustling rotunda of EDSA-Taft.” (Read full review)

3.0 Carl Papa (Whatever, Carl)

“Amok undeniably is a very well made, technically superb film. The direction and the story telling, along with the editing are spot on fluid. The passing of points of view seem effortlessly done. The cinematography and the sound were also all aces. But, despite all those, I feel empty and not sold with the film. I personally see the film as a collection of both interesting and uninteresting stories.” (Read full review)

“Well-made Pinoy Amores Perros. A few scenes (mainly the barbecue and uncle-nephew sequences) could have been directed better.”

4.0 Ian Urrutia (Pinoy Cinema)

“The sheer brilliance of Law Fajardo’s gritty thriller, Amok doesn’t just stop in the attempt to marry technical polish with bravura filmmaking. Majority of the goods were actually delivered through its prodigiously visual portrayal of Pasay Rotonda, which on a scorching afternoon, suddenly becomes the deathbed for people caught up in intertwined destinies, violence, and accidents. While there’s a tendency for the film to go over the top especially on the climactic last part, the direction’s still pretty solid— one that reveals a shocking picture of urban tension and tragedy.”

“It first introduces us to the first character, a sidewalk vendor selling barbecue, innards and the like. Then to a has-been actor (?), then to the next and the others which includes gay pimp, taxi driver, etc. After all have been introduced, it then goes for the kill. Shock the view. Show bloodshed. Then after that, the end. In short, it’s one scriptwriting exercise. The half-baked performances have not helped at all. The whole thing is saved by brisk editing and an expensive camera.”